Collaborative Research: Creating National Leadership Cohorts for Making Academic Change Happen

在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育界，不断有人呼吁改变学生的教育方式。变革过程的知识对于商业和工业中的个人来说是熟悉的，但是对于工程和计算机科学教师来说，这是一个新的领域，他们希望在他们的校园里改变工程和计算机科学教育。在这个项目中，教师通过定制的“让学术改变发生”课程，介绍了基于研究的变革策略的知识、技能和能力。本课程每年在革命性工程和计算机科学系（RED）项目调查员会议上发布。会议结束后，教职员工每月都会通过指导和每个RED群组中代表的变革领袖社区获得支持。该项目的研究部分使用观察，文件分析，电话访谈和焦点小组来确定策略如何影响每个计划变更项目的成功或失败。此外，在STEM教育中形成一个全国性的变革领导者群体，扩大了已知从事变革实践的学者群体，并可以为变革提供重要的模型。STEM教育界缺乏系统性的变革，这表明迄今为止所追求的变革方法存在一个重要问题。改革的目标是课程和课程水平，重点是教与学。该项目旨在通过解决以下问题来解决这一具体问题：能否通过关注个体变革推动者的技能和变革专业知识来克服STEM教育变革的局限性？在这个项目中，在革命性的工程和计算机科学系（RED）研究人员会议上提供了“使学术变革发生”定制化变革课程。我们正在跟踪三组RED受助人的工作，因为他们利用定制课程提供的知识、技能和能力在自己的校园中实施变革。研究工作的智力价值在于确定——通过观察、文件分析、访谈和焦点小组——如何学习、应用变革知识、技能和能力，并为每个变革项目的成功做出贡献。所涉及的研究问题如下：1。RED接受者在项目开始时所拥有的变更管理的基本技能是什么？什么特征/组成部分/特征有助于工程教育改变项目领导者的成功？MACH课程如何支持变革领导者进行变革的能力？变革推动者如何授权利益相关者发展变革的共同愿景？广义的内容如何影响创造和维持变化的能力？这个项目更广泛的影响在于为工程和计算机科学教育的变革创造了一个国家领导群体。通过扩大已知从事变革实践的学者群体，工程和计算机科学群体受益于变革模型（在项目产生的案例研究中描述），并增加了对影响变革的个人代理的理解。

Within the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education community, there are repeated calls for changing the way students are educated. Knowledge of change processes are familiar to individuals in business and industry, but represent new arenas for engineering and computer science faculty who envision change in engineering and computer science education on their campuses. In this project, faculty are introduced to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of research-based change strategies through the customized Making Academic Change Happen Curriculum. This curriculum is delivered annually at the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) Program Investigator Meeting. After the meeting, faculty receive monthly support through coaching and through the community of change leaders represented in each RED cohort. The research part of this project uses observations, document analysis, phone interviews and focus groups to determine how the strategies impact the success or failure of each planned change project. In addition, the formation of a national cohort of change leaders in STEM education enlarges the community of scholars known to be engaged in change practices and can provide important models for change. The lack of systemic change within the STEM education community points to an important problem with the approach to change that has been pursued thus far. Change has been targeted at the course and curriculum levels, focusing on teaching and learning. The project seeks to address this specific problem by addressing the following question: Can the limits of change in STEM education be overcome by focusing on the individual change agents in terms of their skills and change expertise?In this project, the Making Academic Change Happen customized change curriculum is being offered at the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (RED) Investigators Meeting. The work of three cohorts of RED recipients is being tracked as they use the knowledge, skills, and abilities offered in the customized curriculum to enact change on their own campuses. The intellectual merit of the research work lies in determining - through observation, document analysis, interviews, and focus groups - how change knowledge, skills, and abilities are learned, applied, and contribute to the success of each change project. The research questions addressed are as follows:1. What are the baseline skills in change management that RED recipients possess at the start of their projects?2. What traits/components/characteristics contribute to the success of engineering education change project leaders?3. How does the MACH curriculum support a change leader's ability to make change?4. How do change agents empower stakeholders to develop a shared vision for change?5. How does contents, broadly defined, affect the ability to create and sustain change?The broader impact of this project lies in the creation of a national leadership cohort for change in engineering and computer science education. By enlarging the community of scholars known to be engaged in change practices, the engineering and computer science communities benefit from models for change (described in the case studies produced by the project) and increased understanding of an individual's agency to affect change.